HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SYDNEE

Sydnee's birthday was the day before we left for vacation - May 22nd- So we decided to celebrate with the family when we got there. Brynlee turned 1 just the week before Sydnee, so we had a joined family celebration! Sydnee got some cute clothes, books, and a few toys. She had also gotten some gifts from Sam's family before we left. Thanks everyone!

Huntington Beach

Brooks, Chauntae, and Brynlee. Brynlee loved the sand. She didn't hesitate to jump right in and play.

Jaxson holding on for dear life while Grandpa tried to help him ride the boogie board!




Shaye absolutely loved the beach! She would go out by herself if she couldn't recruit anybody in to the cold water. She swam, rode the boogie board, played in the sand, and ran along looking for shells.


Most of the adults stayed on the beach, but Sam and Brooks got in a few times to swim and ride the board.

Jaxson abd Bryden would run out towards the water, and as soon as a wave came in, they would run away!

Sydnee was so adorable playing in the sand. Her swim suit cover came in handy on the cool beach. It would take her a minute to get use to the sand and she would hold her feet out of it and try to shake it off, but once she decided there was no getting away from it, she playing and crawled around.

Disneyland

On Wednesday we went to Disneyland. It was fun... the kids had such a great time! I would like to tell you about each of the pictures individually, but for some reason when I upload pictures it just gives me all the codes and I can't tell where one starts and one stops (is anybody else having this problem?)
The kids loved seeing all the Disney characters. We didn't go through the Princess tour though. Shaye is not really interested in princesses anymore, and with only one day to do the whole park, we had to keep moving. We rode as many rides as we could. Jaxson surprised me by getting on a few roller coasters. Turns out, it was Shaye who was scared to go on the big ones... it is usually the opposite. Jaxson is my one who is usually scared of things. The Matterhorn spooked them a little when we flew past that "monster" at the top of the mountain. Pirates of the Caribbean had them all looking around nervously too!
Everybody loved Small World. Even Sydnee got to take that ride, and as you can see in one of these pictures, she was oooing and pointing at everything.
It was a great time to go. It wasn't too hot, though plenty warm, and the lines weren't that bad either. I was glad we had the chance to take them.

LA Marathon

On Memorial Day Sam and Nicole ran the LA Marathon while we were out in California. They did great! I can't even imagine running over 26 miles. Sam finished in 5 hours 6 minutes, and Nicole was right behind him at 5 hours and 22 minutes. Considering they didn't finish their training, that was awesome! Sam's original goal was to finish in 4 hours, but his trainging got cut a little short due to injuries and the business of selling our house and he only made it up to 16 miles. I believe the farthest Nicole had run before this was a half marathon - 13.2 miles. They were sore for a couple of days, but we went to Disneyland on Wednesday and they were able to walk all day there without a problem. It was a huge accomplish, we were all proud of both of them!

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day! The kids made cute gifts at school that they were excited to give me that morning, and Sam had gotten a gift and card from everyone also. Sam made a great dinner, and I even got to take a nap! The kids were especially helpful, and that made for a wonderful day!

Sydnee in Spring

Sydnee has hit that stage where she gets into everything and crawls around the house destroying things! Case in point: Here she is ripping up the pad for my ironing board. I came around the corner and she smiled and ripped a few more!

Poor thing was so tired. After she ate dinner, and smeared half on herself, she had a bottle and fell asleep right in the chair!

Happy Easter

The kids got packages from famiy members. Thanks Emmy for these pretty wrapped gifts!


The kids got baskets full of goodies and toys from the Easter Bunny and new scooters from mom and dad. They have been wanting these for a while, and really enjoy riding them.




Here's the kids all dressed for church on Easter Sunday!

Hoping To Move

We officially put our house on the market For Sale by Owner. It was a lot of work this weekend to get it ready.... a lot! We cleared out everything that we could do without for a month or two and cleaned every nook and cranny. Our poor kids don't have any toys to play with, and aren't allowed to hardly walk through the house. :) It was just time for more space. We have found a beautiful house with 4 bedrooms and a playroom. Its in a community with a swimming pool and a park, and its only a mile up the street. We have loved this house we are in now. It was the first one we bought, and it will always be special, but we hope it sells quickly. In this market, that may not be easy, but we thought we'd give it a try. Wish us luck... I don't think I can keep up with this level of cleaning for too long!!

Are We Old?

We picked up hamburgers from Braum's last night for dinner since we have been so busy working on the house. Sam was telling the kids how he use to get hamburgers from Sonic all the time when he was a kid, and Shaye said "they had Sonic back then!?" :-)

Where's the Toothfairy!

The day has finally arrived! Shaye has been hoping to lose a tooth since kindergarten, so she was thrilled when she finally had one come loose a few months ago. Every day she was ready to pull it, and I had to tell her it wasn't loose enough yet! Well, I was gone on Tuesday evening and Sam tied floss around it and gave it a pull. I know... ouch! But Shaye was okay with it. It was almost out, so Sam grabbed his pliers and finished the job! Shaye slept with her tooth under her pillow, and awoke to a dollar bill.